"Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her own hands." Proverbs 14:1

November 30, 2010

Out in the middle of nowhere...

We made an informed choice to live out in the middle of nowhere.We love the privacy, the serene quiet, and the space to let our kids run around and disturb the serene quiet with their happy squeals and shrieks on our ten acres of wooded property.We knew full well it meant sacrifice and inconvenience for us in some ways, with an hour-long commute for my husband and a long drive for all of us when we want to go just about anywhere besides the post office or Grandma and Grandpa’s house.It was worth it to give the kids the environment we feel is best for them.But we didn’t know we were removing ourselves from the cyber world as well.

When we lived in New York we were country bumpkins too, but had high speed internet and great cell phone reception.We lived on five acres with all the peace and quiet we needed, and had the best of both worlds: out in the middle of nowhere but completely connected to everyone when we wanted to be, and isolated when we didn’t.

Not so here.What we were uninformed about when we bought this place two years ago was that we would have a terrible internet connection and practically no cell phone reception.Yes, we live in the dead zone.As a stay-at-home mom, my location day-to-day as indicated by my job title is at home.And living far away from stores, online shopping is my safety net.Every day is Cyber Monday.That was fine and dandy when we were in the New York boonies with our fantastic internet.But Hughesnet is our internet provider here, and I think it’s trying to kill us.

Normally I can handle the slow connection.I email friends, visit Facebook several times a day, and shop for everything I can over the internet, and with patience I can still enjoy all the things the rest of the modern world does, just a bit more slowly.But during this joyous season of everybody scrambling to buy things for each other, the crowded stores aren’t the only thing I’ve had to avoid.This mortal enemy of ours, Hughesnet, is even slower than usual when more local yokels are on it, and with we hicks shopping online all at once, everything was taking twice as long as usual over the past few days.Finally I decided to implement our Wilbur way: do things when nobody else does to avoid the crowds and enjoy the experience more.We do it with travel, restaurants, and so on.Why do this any differently?

So I sat here this morning an even earlier bird than usual, bleary-eyed and coffee in hand at 4:00 AM, doing my morning routine two hours ahead of schedule, allowing time to shop online for Christmas presents while everyone else in Hickville was sleeping.Listen… do you hear those bells ringing?It’s the celebratory sound declaring to the world that I have finished my Christmas shopping!What sweet relief.Hughesnet has not gotten the best of me, and now I can relax and enjoy the month or so to come, watching for the big brown truck to bring me all those gifts.

And in the weeks to come, as I’m wrapping up those gifts and doing all the other things we moms do to get ready for the holidays, I’ll glance out my window from time to time, watching the kids playing and enjoying themselves outside in the Wilburness, knowing that they are worth these small sacrifices.